THE SUPREME COURT’S “CONSERVATIVE 5” ANOINTS ALL U.S. CORPORATIONS

 

…The D.C. home of the “Conservative 5”

 

Once again, the conservatives on the High Court declare that “corporations are people”.

The five conservative activist judges on the US Supreme Court really gave it big-time to the average American this week.  Their 5-4 conservative majority votes just keep on coming as the “Conservative 5” give their middle-finger to everyone that isn’t a corporation.

First, in the Harris v. Quinn case, the court is now telling home health-care workers who choose not to belong to a union that they don’t have to pay the union’s cost of bargaining for a contract.  So, the conservatives have now undercut the ability of low-paid health workers to organize themselves for higher wages and benefits.

This is the beginning of the slippery-slope for them going after ALL of American’s workers unions. 

Forty years ago, almost 30% of America’s workers belonged to a union.  Today that percentage is at an all-time low of 11.3%.  In the last national election, for the very first time in decades, a union was not one of the largest contributors to the Democrats running for office.  That’s what the conservatives want more than anything.  They want the strength of the unions to go away in future elections for the liberals. 

In addition, this is why the Republicans are going after keeping women and minorities from voting.  It’s because these groups always tend to vote Democratic.

After this 5-4 vote of the high court, they did another 5-4 conservative vote for the Hobby-Lobby case. In this religious freedom case related to birth control, the majority again voted for the benefit of the company’s owners, not for the employees who work for them. 

 

Oh, that’s right, I keep forgetting that, “corporations are people”.

The court ruled for the Hobby-Lobby company that because the owners of the $2 billion arts-and-crafts chain believed that certain contraceptives are abortion causing drugs or devices, they could not be required by the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) to include them in their health plans.

The scientists and the medical professionals have stated that these contraceptives are not causing “abortions of living beings”, but those of some religions clearly believe differently.  Once again, the five conservative men on the court voted against the women on the court as to what an abortion is, and what isn’t.

The decision, written by one of the 5 conservatives, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., totally ignores the issue of whether birth control methods such as an IUD are abortion-inducing.  But Judge Alito went to great lengths to say that the decision didn’t include other religious issues such as those that are against “immunizations” or “blood transfusions” or even those that are against any and all medical administrations such as the Christian Science church.  But the reality is that Alito and his cronies have opened that door just a crack with this latest decision.  So don’t be surprised when these other churches and religions start suing for their medical beliefs to also be recognized.

Alito wrote that the administration’s approach “achieves all of the Government’s aims while providing greater respect for religious liberty” and this “respect” should be applied to closely held corporations such as Hobby Lobby.  Of course, Alito did not mention that approximately 92% of all US corporations would qualify as “closely held corporations such as Hobby Lobby”.  Therefore, 92% of all US corporations could also announce that they all have religious beliefs that would prevent providing contraceptives to their female employees.  In other words, screw the working woman and force her to pay for her own birth control or female hormonal needs.  (But let’s continue to provide coverage for a man’s E.D. needs for Viagra or Cialis!)

I doubt that Alito and the other four conservatives will remember their friendly remarks about, “greater respect for religious liberty” when they have to rule in future litigation against the Obama contraception compromise?

As Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg put it in her dissent, “They want corporations to have it both ways. One might ask,” Ginsburg wrote, “why the separation should hold only when it serves the interest of those who control the corporation.”

Here, is the obvious overall bias of the court’s conservative corporate majority.  Yes, it’s right there in the open, for all to see.

But, mark my words, this just goes to prove again that, the Citizens-United case was only the beginning.

Copyright  G.Ater  2014